Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Riddle Me Sore

First off, thanks for all the well wishes regarding my grandmother. Unfortunately, she is still not well and in fact seems to be getting worse even though the doctors do not seem to know why. I have always been extremely close to my grandma and it pains me to see her in this condition.

Speaking of doctors I think mine must have taken out a life insurance policy with himself as the benefactor, cause his trying to make me healthy is killing me. I won't go into all the detail again but many of you know about his mission to make me lose 55 pounds. Also my good cholesterol was too low so I have been on a variety of medications to help bring that number up. None of them have worked and twice I have had adverse reactions.

Well, make that three times. Early this morning, around 5 AM I woke up. My skin felt as if there were bugs crawling just beneath the surface and every last inch of me burned as if I had a serious sun burn. I threw the covers back, sat up a bit disoriented, put my glasses on, and eventually stumbled off the the bathroom. Jennifer sat up in bed and ask what was wrong. I mumbled something incoherent and proceeded to drain my over full bladder. I remember thinking two things. One, I felt light headed, two I needed to go into the kitchen and get an ibuprofen since my doctor has said taking one with the pill should help alleviate any side affects.

I made it a couple of steps and boom. I hit the floor HARD. My wife said I fell like a tree without even trying to catch myself. My glasses cut the bridge of my nose and I have a swollen bruised left cheek as well as a sore arm and elbow on that same side. On the plus side I did clean off the bathroom counter in record time on the way down.

But enough about the wonders of modern medicine. How about another edition of RIDDLE ME THIS? Okay this is actually a recycled old post, but only about three people read this blog back when I first posted it, and especially with the addition of Phats to my readership I though it would get a better, and more varied responses this time.

Have you ever heard of a referee competition? Follow me on this. Can you picture a bunch of guys standing out in some field, clad in their trusty black and white stripes competing to see how high they can throw a yellow flag? Me neither, but it might sound something like this if ESPN televised such an event.

"Boy Howdy Jim. Look at Frank Jones go. He's really on his A game today. I've never seen anyone signal false start with such zest."

"You said it Biff. He got a full 720 on that rotation. And his form was flawless."

Ridiculous right? Nobody cares how well a ref looks while he throws a flag or signals a penalty, so what would be the point of having them compete just for the sake of competition? Refs only have value as long as they are needed to police an actual game. I couldn't agree more.

So why in the world do we have cheerleader competition? What are they cheering for? And who are they leading in these supposed cheers? Here in Amarillo we have at least two "organizations" that girls or guys of all ages can join and cheer. Not for sports teams, but in cheer competitions. Why?

Somebody please explain this to me. I know someone will take offense to this and claim my attitude towards this is sexist, but really I don't think that is the case. To me it is more a case of putting the cart before the horse. It would be like having a Zamboni driver competition based on how pretty of turn they make at each end of the ice, when his real job is to lay a decent sheet down so the game can proceed. Or to take the analogy out of the arena, Like judging a conductor on how well he flings that little stick around(yes I'm aware that description makes me sound like a hick) instead of how well the symphony plays.What's your opinion on this? I suspect most of you will disagree, but that's okay. I can live with rejection. I'm a writer.

Oh, I hope your grandma gets better. And wow - that reaction to your meds is scary! You could have REALLY hurt yourself. The bathroom is a scary place to fall. Lots of hard surfaces and such.

The cheerleading riddle is an interesting one. But I would argue that even though one might not care how a *ref* looks when he calls a neutral zone infraction, people do care how *cheerleaders* look as they perform their routines. So the technical performance is judged on aesthetics rather than actually cheering on the team.

Huh - coming to the defense of cheerleaders. I'm fairly certain I've never done that before. I thought all you Texans considered cheerleaders to be the creme de la creme of society! (ha ha)

Travis--the fall in the bathroom is not good! So many of these darn drugs have side effects worse than the condition. Surely these is something better.?? I'm a firm believer that some of these doctors need to take the medication themselves before prescribing it for us. They might be a little more cautious and hey I bet they could lower their malpractice insurance--that is if they survived the side effects.

Cheerleading is a form of athletics, the same way dancing is. It can be done well or poorly, just like dancing. Those who engage in cheerleading are as interested in showing off their prowess to other experts in the field as dancers are.

The important thing to understand is that the cheerleaders consider football to be a mere excuse for what they do. It's as secondary to their art as music is to a dancer; the dancer is more concerned with the joy of their own movements than the brilliance of the music. The cheerleaders don't really care who wins the game.

Of course I am going to defend the cheerleader position seeing as how for four years I competed in those very competitions. These competitions have been going on for years, and just a little background first. They have different organizations UCA, and NCA are the two biggies, and you qualify for Nationals which is what is on ESPN usually by going to camp, or sending in a video tape performance. I actually posted the video tape performance from my senior year on my blog awhile back. Anywho. I think it's a nice extra for us cheerleaders for all our hard work, we go and and do a 2 minute extreme routine and the best squad(usuall the one that hits) comes out on top. It's a chance for us to do all our skills, and show what we've learned and get judged on them. During football/basketball/volleyball/soccer which are all sports I cheered for at Purdue we're never the main attraction, and it's our chance to be in the spotlight. I know too that some people don't call us athletes, and this is one way to say hey look what we do is incredibly athletic and most can't do it. Does that help at all?

Also, I coach cheerleading at the HS I teach at, and we have recently started a competition squad from all our squads which is Boys Varsity Basketball, Girls Varsity Basketall, JV, and Freshmen. We select 14 girls from those groups that way if they want to cheer but not compete it's not a big deal.

:) help at all? You should watch em they are very entertaining, The University of Kentucky is amazing! By the way ref'ing isn't a sport cheerleading is that's the difference, and don't get me wrong I loved cheering at ALL the games just as much as competing

Travis, Sorry about your grandmother and also about your health issues. My dad had some serious blackouts and dizzy spells with his high blood pressure medicine. It took 2 weeks for him to start feeling normal with the medicine. I hope you feel better sooner.

About cheerleader contests - I am actually with you, never understood why there are contests on this, but then again, I don't know why synchronized swimming is a sport either.

Sending my hugs to you and your grandma! That's quite a fall. Hope you're getting back into the groove. I hate diets. I love food--I don't want to know what my cholesterol level is like...especially during "this time of the month." Hehehe.

I'm sorry about your grandma. I hope you and she feel better soon! And at least you didn't break anything when you fell! I'm not really into the whole cheeleading thing. Except for the Spartan cheerleaders. Because back in the day, Will Ferrell and Cheri O'Teri were hilarious!

Your story about the ill effects of medicines is so timely. I've avoided some of these meds for the same reason. The side effects are horrible. But doctors seem concerned primarily about making money and not about your health. One wonders, treat future health risks with current health risk? How does that provide us with a net benefit?

I'm sorry to hear about your Grandma Travis. We thought my grandmother was going to pass a year ago - she was in a coma and everything. I told them she was too drugged up and they didn't believe me. Hospice pulled all her meds, per her agreement, and she "woke up" and has been awake since. (I think it was because she was too drugged but no one farking believes me.) She has some heart problems that require hospitalization from time to time and that concerns me. I'm close to her as well - she's like a mother to me. I am sending best wishes that she mend soon and comforting thoughts to you from one grandchild to another.

As for your health? SLOW DOWN ON THE EATING! Lower your portions sizes. Eat what you want but less of it. Increase your water intake. Most times we feel hungry when water is all we need. Walk, walk, and walk some more. Easy exercise. :) (Plus you'll feel better and sex is better too. :o) )